Motive Is Discounted at Krishna Arson Trial

AP

Published: December 10, 1987

CLARKSBURG, W.Va., Dec. 9—
The nation's biggest Hare Krishna community grossed $3.9 million in 1983 and it would have been absurd for its leader to burn a building that year to collect $40,000 in insurance, a defense lawyer said Tuesday at the start of the leader's trial here on arson charges.

''The leader of a community that takes in nearly $4 million needs to go out and burn a building to collect $40,000?'' the lawyer, James Lees, said at the trial of Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada in Federal District Court.

Mr. Bhaktipada, 50 years old, and Thomas Drescher, 39, also known as Tirtha Swami, were charged in September with burning an apartment building on July 14, 1983, in a plot to defraud a Huntington insurance company. The community owned the building, which was next to the Krishna encampment at New Vrindaban, 70 miles southwest of Pittsburgh.

Mr. Bhaktipada and Mr. Drescher, both of whom are Krishna swamis, or holy men, are charged with conspiracy, using an incendiary device to commit a felony, malicious destruction of a building and mail fraud. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 5 to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.

''My client did not order or in any way contribute to the burning of a building for $40,000,'' Mr. Lees told the jury during opening arguments. ''That's absurd.'' The United States Attorney's office in West Virginia has said it decided to prosecute the Krishna leaders based on information it said it had received from former members of the community.

One of the first witnesses, a state arson investigator, said that, in his investigation, he saw two five-gallon cans similar to those used to carry gasoline.

But the investigator, Paul J. Gill, said all the evidence in the case was destroyed about a year after the fire because the state inquiry had been dropped. ''If the case is not an active investigation it is destroyed,'' he said of the evidence.

Mr. Gill added that 14 photographs of the scene that he took failed to develop properly and were not usable.

Another witness, Susan Schramm, said she lived in the apartment building that burned in exchange for doing chores for the community until a short time before the fire. She testified that neighbors told her that they had seen someone carrying what appeared to be gasoline cans try to set fire to a garage nearby.

She added that vandals continually harassed those living in the building. ''My husband spent more than one night sitting by the door with a baseball bat,'' Mrs. Schramm testified. ''They'd throw rocks. They'd throw bottles.'' During opening arguments, Mr. Lees had asked jurors to keep an open mind during the trial.

''In some parts of West Virginia, these people are referred to as 'critters,' '' Mr. Lees said of the Krishnas. ''The evidence will show that some nights are shoot-up-the-Krishna nights. In particular, Friday nights.''